Polygamy and Mormonism are inseparably entwined. One of the most
offensive aspects of Mormon-based polygamy is the rampant practice of taking underage
girls as polygamous wives. This is precisely what Brian David Mitchell did when he
abducted Elizabeth Smart. In the western United States, there are at least 30,000 people
involved in the practice of Mormon-based polygamy. In these polygamous groups, the
compulsion for underage girls to marry polygamists--usually men much older than
themselves--is a part of everyday life. In these communities, girls as young as 12 or 13
are often married off to priesthood leaders. The most powerful and influential of these
priesthood holders have first pick of the girls. Parents of the young girls submit their
daughters willingly into these unions with the hope of being blessed by God in their
afterlife.

One asks, where did this practice come from? Why do these offenders take such young girls
as wives? What does Mormon doctrine have to do with this?

These are indeed puzzling questions, but the answers are simple. The founder of Mormonism,
Joseph Smith Jr. set the precedent for this behavior.

Smith married several underage girls himself. The most notorious example of this is in the
case of Helen Mar Kimball. Young Helen married Smith in May, 1843. She was 14 years old;
the same age as Elizabeth Smart was at the time of her abduction. Helens father,
Heber Chase Kimball gave his daughter to Smith as a token of his unquestioning devotion.
In return, Smith promised that this union would seal up the salvation of the Kimball
family. Smith didnt use a knife to coerce this young girl, he used the weapon he was
most adept at using, psychological manipulation.

I acknowledge that these accusations are extraordinary, but evidence that this event took
place is well documented, as is evidence of Smiths marriage to several other
underage child brides. It can by found at this website, which is sponsored by the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

Do a search on Joseph Smith. There are many entries under this name. Be sure to select the
one who was born Dec. 23, 1805, and died Jun. 27, 1844. His parents names were
Joseph Smith (Sr.) and Lucy Mack. Scroll down to MARRIAGES to see a list of many of
Smiths wives. To find out the ages of the wives, click on their respective names. Be
sure to click on Helen Mar Kimball. One will see that in May, 1843, at the time of her
marriage to Smith, she was 14 years old.

There is profound ignorance of these facts among the rank-and-file members of the LDS
Church. The leaders of this church actively pretend that polygamy never existed. Today
they provide educational pamphlets for their members that portray Smith, Brigham Young,
and several other early presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as
monogamous. Many members of the LDS Church dont even believe that the founder of
their church was a polygamist, let alone a man who filled his harem with underage girls as
young as 14.

The LDS Church discontinued the practice of polygamy in 1890, but this was only a move to
relieve pressure that was placed on them by the US Government. It was also a move toward
the goal of establishing statehood for Utah. The practice was discontinued, but the
doctrine is still in place and can be found in the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 132.
This is canonized LDS scripture. I recommend that anyone interested in this phenomenon
read this piece of LDS scripture. Here is the link to Doctrine and Covenants, Section 132:

The LDS Church finds itself in a serious dilemma by refusing to repudiate this doctrine,
an act that would seriously undermine the alleged divine calling of their founder and
expose him for the sexual predator he really was. But by allowing this doctrine to remain
in canonized form within their holy scriptures, they are allowing a hideous practice to
continue unchallenged. Extremely devout members find themselves very troubled when they
study the practice of polygamy according to Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, who
was also the man who established the precedent for not only practicing polygamy, but
taking underage girls as polygamous wives. These devout members find themselves in serious
trouble with the LDS Church hierarchy when they start looking into this doctrine.
Expressing a belief in this doctrine is a sure-fire way to get oneself excommunicated.
After finding themselves excommunicated, inevitably these devout Mormons get involved in
Mormon Fundamentalism, the current religious movement in which Mormon-based polygamy is
held to be a sacred doctrine. The ranks of Mormon Fundamentalist groups are swelling
rapidly as a result of their inherent fecundity, and also because of the steady stream of
devout, but disaffected Mormons who are leaving the LDS Church to join with them.

One now must undoubtedly be asking, how could the LDS Church possibly change this trend? I
propose two solutions:

First, the leaders of the LDS Church need to repudiate this doctrine and permanently
strike it from their canonized scripture. This will cast Joseph Smith in an unfavorable
light, but this will be the honest thing to do. Only by completely repudiating the
practice of polygamy, and condemning this practice even by Joseph Smith, will they ever
have a chance of holding back the tide of disaffected members leaving the church to get
involved in Mormon Fundamentalism. Until they do this, devout members will continue to
take this doctrine seriously and there will continue to be a potential for the formation
of the mindset we see with Brian David Mitchell, Elizabeth Smarts abductor.

The second solution should be understood with the realization that the LDS Church is the
most powerful political force in Utah. Unofficially speaking, Utah is the quintessential
American theocracy. Even the governor of the state, Mike Leavitt owes his personal loyalty
to the LDS Church first and foremost. As a member of the LDS Church, this is his
obligation. Considering their immense political power in this state, the leaders of the
LDS Church need to actively speak out against the practice of polygamy, without fear of
bad publicity, which has hindered their involvement thus far. The crimes taking place in
polygamous communities are largely ignored by Utah law enforcement. It is frequently
suggested that the LDS Church discourages prosecution within these groups because this
inevitably brings them embarrassment when polygamy is in the headlines. This negative
publicity frustrates their attempts to ignore polygamy, in the hopes that it will be
forgotten by the world. But there is little they can do to avoid bad publicity when
polygamy puts Utah in the world spotlight, as has happened with the abduction of Elizabeth
Smart. The LDS Church needs to encourage the Utah State government to prosecute the abuses
that take place daily in the Mormon Fundamentalist communities without fear of negative
publicity.

Mormon-based polygamy contains within it the insidious practice of taking underage girls
as polygamous wives. If this isnt child sexual abuse, what is? These crimes need to
be aggressively prosecuted today. Until this happens, young girls will continue to be
victims of this form of child sexual abuse. The LDS Church needs to take responsibility
for introducing this practice to America. They need to publicly denounce the actions of
their founder. If this doesnt happen soon, we will be left to speculate as to how
much worse this problem will become in the future. Today, the abuses inherent to
Mormon-based polygamy are worse than ever. Under the current level of action, this trend
will continue.

There is no concerted effort in the church to inform converts (or
even members, from what I've seen) about these doctrinal issues. I even personally, in the
flesh, on the spot, took a one-on-one guided tour of BY's house in SLC. NEVER once was
there a hint that the man practiced polygamy. I knew he had several wives (like dozens?)
but I thought they were successive, not concurrent!!!! They IDOLIZE that man and
purposefully cover up unsavoury facts.

They do the same with other history, practices and issues in the church, riddling
Mormonism with deceit.

As for the CK doctrine, yes it is true. Blech. This is a big reason why the Mormon church
cannot absolve itself of its polygamous past or duck responsibility for polygamy abuses in
this present day - because it is a deeply held conviction of the church that polygamy is
part of members' eternal destiny. They teach (albeit quietly and obscurely) that JESUS was
a polygamist and that God, the Father IS a polygamist now. And all "worthy"
priesthood holders will BE polygamists when they reach the CK.

I'd like to see them duck out of acknowledging this as their past and current doctrine.
That would confirm their deceit.

Oh, come to think - didn't the Mormon prophet LIE about this in an interview, on more than
one occasion? Confirming what we're saying. The church lies. Despicable in the extreme.
It's one thing to adhere to and practice religious beliefs that others disagree with, even
find distasteful. It's another level of hypocrisy and deceit to DENY that you do so.

I can't help but be struck by the very title "apologist".
It makes me laugh that false belief systems need someone to apologize for the lies told.
That's really all it comes down to. Smith's original lies weren't convincing enough;
that's why we have FARMS. One almost pictures them saying "we're sorry it's so
unbelievable, we'll make it incoherent instead."

The purpose of FARMS is to make everything so incoherent that no one could possibly make
sense of things. One can use logic to get to the heart of the truth, or one can use
apologetics to go in exactly the opposite direction. The goal at FARMS is not to
make Smith's lies more believable, but rather to dissuade honest intellectuals in their
efforts to simplify matters in their quest for the real truth.